Liu, Ying (2020) Food, workers, companions : a gendered analysis of human-dog relations in Yulin, China. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis examines how different types of human-dog relationship are constructed and how they interplay dynamically in Yulin, where the widely criticised dog-meat festival is held each year. Through an 11-month period of multispecies ethnographic fieldwork, I found that dogs were used for guarding, hunting, fighting, companionship, and food. The first three types of relationship are part of traditional rural life, while the practice of keeping companion dogs as pets is a Western-oriented urban practice, developed through cultural globalisation. The rural relationships are in decline, while the latter two are expanding with urbanisation. Dog-meat eating, originally an occasional rural practice, has transformed into an urban business form, with an economic chain.

Broader social processes are fused into the ways that people from different social backgrounds ‘do gender’; these include the various types of relationship people construct with dogs. Dogs with good working performance are constructed with rural masculinities identified by rural men, while dogs kept as pets are perceived as cute, constructing femininities for urban young women. Meanwhile, human-dog power dynamics vary with gender, as rural men’s affection for working dogs serves their dominance over dogs, while urban woman’s affection results in an ethics of care for dogs, counterbalancing this compensated power. Under this compensated power relationship, many women refrain from eating dog meat. However, their voices are marginalised by local men’s strong defence of dog meat, which is believed to strengthen men’s health. Amidst controversy about the festival, a discourse that categorises dogs into ‘pet dogs’ and ‘Tugo’ has become widespread in Yulin. ‘Tugou’ is the indigenous type of dog used traditionally for guarding, hunting, fighting, and as food. They are generally much less valued than pet dogs. These different social constructions of dogs result in ‘dog racism’ in Yulin.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Dogs -- China, Dog owners -- China, Women dog owners -- China, Human-animal relationships -- China, Dogs -- Food -- China, Dogs -- Social aspects -- China
Official Date:	June 2020
Dates:	Date Event June 2020 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Charles, Nickie ; Lampard, Richard
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	368 leaves : illustrations
Language:	eng

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